MIDNIGHT24 Fruit Chan's THREE EXTREMES is playing at the 48th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21- May 5, 2005. Ran on: 04-24-2005
&quo;Three {hellip} Extremes&quo; is a trio of shorts involving horrific dumplings, a kidnapping and a magician. less

MIDNIGHT24 Fruit Chan's THREE EXTREMES is playing at the 48th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, April 21- May 5, 2005. Ran on: 04-24-2005
&quo;Three {hellip} Extremes&quo; is a trio of shorts ... more

The people who thought up the plot to "Saw II" are much, much sicker than you and me. Imagine that the Zodiac killer took over as executive producer of "Fear Factor," and you might understand the level of suffering in this movie -- which makes the typical
Wes Craven
film look like "It's the Great Pumpkin,
Charlie Brown
."

But as it was in the first "Saw," audiences are faced with insane leaps in logic that sabotage the last part of the film. This movie was a solid Little Man clapping until the final three minutes, which are infected by a plot twist so frustrating that it would defy explanation even if we felt like giving the ending away.

"Saw II," the sequel to last year's surprise hit, looks as if it got a bigger budget this time around. The cast, however, is more obscure, with Cary Elwes and Danny Glover replaced by Donnie Wahlberg and Dina Meyer. Even that creepy puppet in the first film gets little more than a cameo, with approximately the same amount of screen time as Anthony Edwards in "Revenge of the Nerds II."

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Most of the money appears to have been spent on carnage, and what better way to get value out of your slasher filmmaking dollar? Instead of focusing on a single bathroom, the Jigsaw Killer has created an entire crack house of horrors for "Saw II," locking eight unfortunates in a trap-filled scenario from which they must use their heads -- and above all, obey instructions -- to escape.

The first half of "Saw II" is cleverly written, with several twisted surprises that you've never seen before. The bad guy, played with Hannibal Lecter intensity by Tobin Bell, is more terrifying than the movie villains in Hollywood's last five horror films put together -- even though he's in a wheelchair and hooked up to multiple IVs. Wahlberg, a long way from the New Kids on the Block, also holds his own as a shady cop who has a very personal interest in solving the case.

Basically, this is a really good movie until the last part, where director and co-writer Darren Lynn Bousman ruins so much so fast that you'll wonder if his actions are deliberate -- or if the studio interfered.

It's almost as if the makers of "Saw II" watched the last part of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village," sat down together and said, "That was a horrible ending. Now let's brew a big pot of coffee, stay up all night and see if we can come up with something worse."

There's a big twist that comes off totally false, in a movie that already stretched its credibility to the brink in the first 88 minutes. It doesn't ruin "Saw II," which is still an above-average slasher film. But fans of this kind of movie should be able to enjoy the mayhem without feeling as if they'd been victimized themselves.

-- Advisory: Oh, man, where to start ... People constantly cough up blood in "Saw II," while still speaking clearly enough to utter a constant stream of profanity. This movie also contains severed limbs, burning flesh, intentional and forced drug use, stabbings, a shooting and massive head wounds. Whatever your ultimate nightmare death scenario is -- with the exception of shark attack and avian flu -- it's probably in this movie.

The movie "G" was filmed so long ago that the cars and even some of the fashions seem dated. The star, Richard T. Jones, has appeared in more than a dozen films and a few TV shows since "G" started making the festival circuit in 2002.

But despite its unconventional path to wide release -- probably because of the lack of any huge stars -- it's still a movie worth seeing. Loosely telling the story of "The Great Gatsby" using hip-hop musicians in the Hamptons, "G" is an unpolished but entertaining tragedy filled with outstanding performances and memorable moments.

Jones stars as Summer G, a rap mogul whose methods of building his empire are in question. He's still in love with Sky (Chenoa Maxwell), who is married to the duplicitous Chip (Blair Underwood). A dozen minor characters are introduced, and most fit somehow into the main plot.

But the pivotal role -- and by far best performance in the movie -- comes from Andre Royo, an actor who has gone underappreciated for too long. Anyone who has seen Royo's performance as the junkie informant in HBO's "The Wire" knows his ability to bring nuances and sympathy out of a hustler. As Tracy -- the Nick character in "Gatsby" -- Royo carefully balances his options as he lives with Chip, yet starts to realize that Summer is a better option for his cousin Sky.

"G" is tense and often funny but has a few technical problems. With more than three years from completion to wide release, it's a wonder no one could get the sound mixing right. Bill Conti provides a serviceable score, but there's no doubt he's saving his best material for "Rocky VI."

And "Gatsby" purists will be constantly frustrated by distracting changes in the story, including an ending that has nowhere near the impact of the book. The Summer G character also seems a bit too sympathetic, and Maxwell can't quite keep up with Underwood, Jones and Royo as the drama unfolds.

But "G" is worth discovery. It took more than 25 years for F. Scott Fitzgerald's book to become a hit -- maybe three years isn't such a long wait, after all.

-- Advisory: This film contains profanity, sex and a few scenes of violence. Students who want to watch "G" before a test instead of reading "The Great Gatsby" should be warned -- there are several changes from the book. The best you're going to get is a C-minus.

Anyone who's seen a glimpse of Japanese television (even if it was only that hilarious send-up in "Lost in Translation") knows that the frenetic lunacy that passes for entertainment over there can be tough to describe.

Japanese movies can be like that, too. But Tetsuya Nakashima's "Kamikaze Girls," while being a silly, freewheeling, candy-colored lollapalooza, is also a heartfelt tale of friendship.

The novel upon which the film is based, by Novala Takemoto, became a pop-culture phenomenon in Japan. (The press notes inform us that Takemoto's "empathy with social outsiders and decadent fashion sense have helped cultivate a devoted following among young women, particularly those in the 'Lolita' fashion scene.")

Indeed, Momoko (pop idol Kyoko Fukada) is a high school girl who is decked out in the 'Lolita' look -- doll-like series of outfits, complete with parasol, that are her version of her favorite fantasy land: 18th century Versailles. A child of divorce, Momoko moves from the big city to the painfully rural town of Shimotsuma.

Momoko is content to live in her self-created world, which excludes all others. That is, until she encounters Ichiko (Anna Tsuchiya), a biker girl who dresses in the "Yanki" style. Ichiko, whose girl biker gang is called the Ponytails, buys knock-off designer clothes from Momoko, and also forces her way into Momoko's life.

The two develop a friendship, the strength of which surprises both of them -- and us. That such a seemingly frivolous movie, filmed to approximate a girls' comic book, becomes even slightly touching is a testament to Nakashima. His shots, even those of short duration, are rigorously composed, and he draws warmth from his two young leads.

Horror trilogy. Directed by Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, Takashi Miike. In Cantonese, Korean and Japanese with English subtitles. (Rated R. 118 minutes. At the Galaxy.)

Asian horror films have become one of the most influential genres in recent movie history -- they've invaded the psyche of both Hollywood, with its many remakes, and the indie circuit. Like the American suspense and film noir genres of the 1940s and '50s, the best and the brightest of directors in Asia will, eventually, make a horror flick.

"Three ... Extremes" is an excellent chance for genre fans to see three top-notch directors playfully engaged, but the results are mixed. One is haunting and wonderful, one is very good, and one spoils the fun.

Hong Kong's "Dumplings," directed by art-house favorite Fruit Chan, is an excellent film as a 90-minute feature (which is how it was released in Hong Kong), and a different but still accomplished work as a 45-minute short. More of a crude black comedy than a horror film, it stars Miriam Yeung as an aging movie star who will do anything to recapture her lost youth, and a mysterious woman (Bai Ling, who won best supporting actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her work) is more than happy to help solve her problem.

It is in the form of her special dumplings, which have some stomach-churning ingredients. Although it is his first horror film, Chan manages to imbue it with his own special sense of social commentary; probably no other director so acutely captures the ever-changing face of Hong Kong.

Next up is a real downer -- Park Chan-wook's "Cut," another frustrating gross-out fest from the Korean director of "Oldboy." A film director (Lee Byung-hun) returns from a day's work to find a spurned extra holding a child and the director's wife hostage. The director's choice: Let the child be killed or watch as his wife's fingers are cut off one by one.

Park is a supremely talented director, and his stunning eye for visuals is again on display. But as in "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," Park's goal is to shock seemingly without purpose. Only in the terrific "Oldboy" has this filmmaker pulled it all together.

The closing film, "Box," is one of the simplest and best films made by Japanese bad boy Takashi Miike ("Audition," "Dead or Alive" trilogy). A director prone to excess at all costs, Takashi actually shows restraint and beautifully depicts the inner life of a successful novelist who has been hiding her involvement in the death of her twin sister when they were 10. Her sister's ghost is haunting -- or is it in her mind?

"Box" opened "Three ... Extremes" in Asia, but Lions Gate Films has flipped the order, demoting "Cut" to the middle and rightfully placing "Box" at the end, where Takashi's moody apparition of a film can have the most emotional impact.

-- Advisory: This trilogy is loaded with violence and gruesome images.

The timing couldn't be better for "Make It Funky," the concert documentary about New Orleans music that opens today at the Roxie Theater. As musicians walk through the streets of the Treme neighborhood, it is impossible not to think about the floodwaters that swamped those very blocks only weeks ago.

Shot at an April 2004 all-star concert and narrated by the estimable Art Neville of the Neville Brothers, "Make It Funky" encapsulates the story of New Orleans rhythm and blues, moving on and off the stage at Saenger Theatre in New Orleans to tour the city and have people like Neville, songwriter Allen Toussaint, recording engineer Cosimo Matassa and drummer Earl Palmer recite the lore. Neville's informal interviews, in fact, are much more poignant and pointed than the often syrupy narration he reads.

"Growing up in England," says Keith Richards, one of the few outsiders invited to participate along with Bonnie Raitt, "you wouldn't be able to tell from any other record, but you always knew when a record was from New Orleans."

The cameras travel through a city that has now disappeared and record the musical culture that has now been scattered to the winds. Cyril Neville, who is interviewed extensively in the film, has moved to Austin, Texas, and says he has no intention of returning to New Orleans. His brothers Art and Aaron, the elder brothers of New Orleans' first family of funk, live in Nashville.

But with the steady hand of the courtly Toussaint guiding the band, "Make It Funky" pieces together the history of New Orleans R&B -- from Lloyd Price singing "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" to the rich, syncopated sound of Art Neville's other group, the Meters. Although the exploits of such New Orleans luminaries as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Little Richard and others are extolled at length, it is the live performances from the Saenger that light up the screen time and time again; Toussaint backing Irma Thomas on "Old Records," Walter "Wolfman" Washington picking out a guitar solo with his teeth on Robert Parker's "Barefootin'," and the little-known 69-year-old blues singer Snooks Eaglin, who plucks some sure-enough funky guitar on the Earl King number "Come On."

The love people have for this city just comes tumbling out of every part of this movie, from outsiders like Richards and Raitt or pianist Jon Cleary, a British expatriate who moved to New Orleans to study at the feet of the masters, to disc jockey Jim Russell, a homegrown hero who dared to play the black musicians' records on the radio, a radical act he performed simply because he loved the music so much. And it's important to remember that there was indeed a time, not very long ago, when to play a Fats Domino record on the radio was highly subversive in the segregated South.

From the triple trumpet challenge that opens the film featuring horn men Kermit Ruffins, Irvin Mayfield and Troy Andrews to the jam-packed finale, the brilliant colors, the vibrant flavors and sultry, seductive rhythms of New Orleans music serve to remind us how unique, beautiful and valuable the city and its heritage are to all of us in this country.

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The entire run of the film at the Roxie will serve as a benefit for Louisiana Rebirth (Restoring the Soul of America).

-- Joel Selvin

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